It's been six years since Mahershala Ali walked out on stage at Comic-Con in San Diego wearing a Blade hat. In front of thousands of rabid fans in Hall H, the Oscar winner revealed that he'd been cast as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Daywalker.
Since then, the movie has been through multiple creative teams and has even lost some cast members. Sets were built at one stage (including for an elaborate action sequence atop a train), but Blade hasn't come anywhere close to becoming a reality. And honestly, it feels like it might never happen.
Talking to Variety, Batman Begins writer David S. Goyer revealed that he offered to help Marvel Studios. Why? Goyer wrote Blade and Blade II, and ultimately directed the critically panned Blade: Trinity. Those first two instalments remain beloved among comic book fans, though.
"It’s so funny, about eight months ago — when, not the latest hiccup hit, but like the prior hiccup — I had so many people that would say to me, 'Dude, would you get in there on 'Blade?'' Would you just get in there?,' whether it be friends or fans or people on social media," Goyer recalled.
"And I wasn’t even really thinking about it, but then I had my agent call Marvel and say, 'Do you guys need any help?' And they said, 'We love you, but we think we’ve cracked it now, and we’re in a good place,'" he continued. "And then the latest thing happened. And so no, they haven’t contacted me."
Admitting that he doesn't know "the behind-the-scenes of it" all, Goyer did confirm that he remains open to offering Marvel Studios his assistance should Kevin Feige change his mind.
It's worth noting at this point that, eight months since Goyer's services were declined, the studio appears no closer to bringing Blade back to the big screen...unless the plan is to skip his solo movie and go straight to Midnight Sons.
"I might consider it because I love the character, and it sort of started my superhero career," Goyer said. "Even though I’m now considered a DC guy, I started as a Marvel guy. I would consider it, it would be fun to return to that world. That being said, I’m pretty much otherwise 99% done with superheroes. I love this stuff. I watch all the movies, but I’ve just done so much in the world. But yeah, I would consider it, just for old time’s sake."
Is Goyer the right person to crack Blade for Marvel Studios? We'd imagine Feige wants a fresh take on the character, not more of the same, so probably not. It's also hard to look past how bad Blade: Trinity was, and while Goyer's contributions to The Dark Knight Trilogy made up for that, he worked on the scripts closely with Christopher Nolan.
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